ORANGE BEACH, Alabama -- Orange Beach fire and rescue trucks break down so routinely that the crews almost had to borrow a truck from Gulf Shores to respond to a recent emergency, according to Fire Chief Shane Phillips.

The Orange Beach City Council responded to the Fire & Rescue Department’s request Tuesday by agreeing to soon buy two new fire engines at an estimated cost of $678,000.

"We don’t need to wait till budget time," said Councilman Jeff Silvers, who met with fire officials and looked at the equipment. "The revenues are great or good, and we need to do it."

"We truly are in a bad way," said Phillips, who oversees 46 personnel.

In the last six months the city has spent $13,900 on fire apparatus to repair trucks and engines, according to the fire chief.

Truck No. 1, a ladder truck with more than 42,000 miles, has multiple electrical issues and since January has been out of service one week per month, he said. And engine No. 2 is a 2000 model with more than 110,000 miles, and is out of service once or twice a week, he said. "Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t," he said.

Engine No. 1 is a 1996 truck used as a reserve vehicle if another truck doesn’t work, and it has 100,000 miles on it and is "under-powered," he said.

The department averages 2,500 fire and rescue calls a year, according to Phillips.

Engines No. 1 and 2 were built to be used in a rural area and are cookie-cutter trucks, not made to be used in a town such as Orange Beach, he said. "Even the volunteer fire departments have better equipment than us."

Engines 1 and 2 will be used as backup vehicles after the new engines are purchased, Phillips said. Industrywide, most trucks are used an average of 10 years, he said.

"This is a priority that we’re moving to the top of the list," Mayor Tony Kennon said. "We have a three- to five-minute response time," and the city wants to maintain that, he said. "We have made no capital expenditures for three years and it’s time."